Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the same issue. Like everybody else, since the news broke last week I cannot get the image out of my head of 800 tiny babies and helpless children neglected, starved and eventually discarded. I respect and acknowledge the endeavours of Catherine Corless and her committee, who initially sought to erect a memorial to the children they knew had died in the home. The extent of what they discovered, however, was way beyond what was expected and now requires so much more than a memorial or indeed an apology.

Today, finally, the atrocity is being openly discussed in the national media, but I am concerned about the sanitised language that is being used when discussing it. We are hearing references to "burials" when, in fact, we are talking about bodies being disposed of in a septic tank. The discovery in the 1970s by two boys revealed the nature of the disposal of the remains. Clearly, these were not respectful burials - they were disposals, as though these children were subhuman. It is stomach-churning. The UN pulled no punches recently when it described the Magdalen laundries as places of forced labour, with slavery-like conditions. There appears to be a type of reluctant acceptance of the reality of what happened here, but the UN was able to call it what it was. We need to call it what it is in this instance and that requires clarity.

Tuam was not the only mother and baby home where this type of thing happened. We already know about the Bessborough case, for example, where there were horrific stories about the mortality rates. This morning, there were repeated references in the media to what the Archbishop had to say about the Tuam revelations. I have more interest at this time in hearing what the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Garda Commissioner have to say about it. I agree with Deputy McLellan that a public inquiry is needed, and there must be an immediate acknowledgement of that from the Government. Will the Minister commit to holding such an inquiry? Does he agree that the nature of the disposal of the bodies suggests that the intention was that their disposal remain a secret? One has to ask why that would be the case. If this septic tank was discovered anywhere else in the country other than beside a religious institution, it would already have been declared a crime scene. It begs the question of why, in fact, it has not been declared as such, which it should and must be.

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